Habit's Poker Blog

February 2017 Recap

February 2017 is history! And what a month it was! It had his great
Moments but also timeframes where nothing at all seemed to work
(started by an encounter with Darth Vader)!
I had to fight tilt and motivation problems and mess with a new
Playerpool.
Let's Sum it up with a few graphs and numbers first!

Just ignore that Winner-Poker is split in 2 graphs. One of them
is specifically for coaching purposes.
I played a few more hands without Tracking software. As far as I
can tell those hands were breakeven.
This might explain the higher rakeback than expected for Winner-Poker.
All hands from bwin are tracked!

I never had any really impressive Results for a single month so far,
but this is my first losing month since I take poker seriously.
(August 2016)
I'm quite happy with the volume! It is less than in January but mostly
due to the fact that in January I played Fast Forward only.
The Month ended really really great (read below). But even with normal
Rakeback, Promotions and Boni I cleared, I'm in a very nice in Plus.
Still, when I look at my graphs, it sadens me and I hope I can do
better, especially Winrate wise!

Bankroll Booster in February:

bwin Boni and Promotions 153.00 $

70 $ : 2/10 parts 350$ Bonus

5 $ : Friday Frenzy

30 $ : The Race

20 $ : Card Rush Leaderboard

3 $ : Poker Rally

25 $ : Rope-A-Dope Ticket in the Money

Winner Poker Rakeback 30.25 $

In Winner Poker I get just normal Rakeback without Boni or anything.
For the few days I played I got 30.25 $

In February Treasure Quest went for another round. This time I got
twice 10 $ (instead of 5 $) for completing rows/columns.
I started with 30 $ in my Bankroll on 888Poker and ended up with 95 $.
So I made 65 $ profit!

Tournaments with a friend on 888 Poker for 1,010.40 $ Winnings in total

In February me and my friend played 5 tournaments where each
of us bought 50% of the others guys starting stack
(so we would split any profit)
1. 2 x The 5,000 $ 8-8-8 (8.80 $ Buy-In) where both of us busted before
the money -17.60 $
2. 2 x The Dozen 3,000 $ (12 $ Buy-In) Which I cashed
once for 42 $ => +3 $
3. 1 x The 10,000 $ Swordfish (30 $ Buy-In) which my buddy won for
2080 $ => 1025 $ for me
Short story to my friends Tournament win:
It was the day the Treasure Quest Promotion ended. Both of us got 30 $
for the last 3 Chests that we couldn't withdraw since u have to clear
Bonus-Money first. So we decided to take a shot at a higher tournament
than we usually play (usually we only play up to 12 $ tournaments)
I'm glad he chose exactly that tournament to take it down with his
A-Game.
And for who happens to give a f**k, I busted within first 10 hands!

Noteworthy stuff that happened in February:

Coaching

I had my first Coaching-lesson ever. My coach is great, we had a good
time together and plan to continue working together!
Without talking specifics, it is nice when someone shows you your leaks
and a way to plug them.
It is also nice to just hear from someone else that the Spots I ran
into recently were not missplayed in general and that I am just on the
wrong side of Variance (unless my tilting hands)!
I am benefiting alot in those Coaching-Sessions!

Blog boosted by Nathan “Blackrain79” Williams

At this point I would love to express my appreciation Nathan. I thank
you so much for the little boost you gave my blog. It is a great honor
for me!
Keep up the great work you deliver every day for us
Micro-Stakes-Grinder!
And best of luck for your new book. I can't wait to get my hands on it!
Go check out Nathan's blogif you are not yet familiar with him.

Stopped playing on bwin completely

I withdrew my money from bwin right after clearing 2/10 of my Bonus
because of personal differences with their Promotion-Support.
I will only do a small tl;dr about what happened:
I got an e-Mail promoting "Friday Frenzy" on the 4th of February.
(a Single Day Rake Race)
I went home from work, turned on the Computer immediately and dropped
13k hands with minimal breaks to get a top 3 spot. (probably would have
won it) First place gets 200 $, 3rd still 150 $ (if i remember correct).
I did not get a notification the next few days so I contacted the
support.
After e-mailing with them for a week, they (finally) told me they had
technical difficulties and therefor resheduled "Friday Frenzy" to
next week.
"Sadly, we have to inform you, we cannot forward your points to
that date."
They offered me a R-A-D-Ticket (11$), "that's all we can do for you."
I felt betrayed, so I only cleared the next part of my bonus and
quit bwin. They just don't seem to be interested in keeping Customers
and I guess it is my fault they had "technical difficulties".
If I had gotten an e-Mail that day, that they will reshedule it, because
of whatever reason, I would be completely fine with it, but promoting
something that did not take place, without letting everyone know, just
is a No-Go for me!

Went down to NL4

This decision was made due to more than 1 reason.
My Main-Goal for February was actually to stay on NL10.
While I have a really really really healthy bankroll to work with and
am still in the green on NL10, I still decided, after talking to my
coach, that it will be better to begin on NL4 at Winner-Poker.
It is a complete different playerpool I have to get used to first.
Second Reason is, I am in the middle of a huge downswing, playing a
lower limit will ease my mind faster and make me regain confidence
quicker!

March Goals and approaches

Learn more

February was just a really big grind. First half of the month was
bwin only to clear as much as possible of my bonus. I expected
beforehand already to not learn to much.
The 2nd half of the month I had to make some thoughts about how to
approach Poker after I left bwin. It took alot of time to figure out
and to set up so everything works as I want it to work.
In March I will go back to the 80-20 Approach. Play 80% of time and
learn 20%. I will make sure that it is part of my Daily Goals every
single day.
Learning more than 20% of the time is overwhelming and suboptimal
in my eyes.

Relax more (efficient)

In February I only stopped the grind whenever I already felt bad and
was angry. (Tilt-Stop)
This was good to prevent me from further losings. It also made me not
open poker for 3 complete days, while still feeling horrible about
the game!
In March I will try to be more efficient with my Poker-Breaks.
The very next weekend I will be gone relaxing for 2 complete days.
Hell am I looking forward to that!
In general I will try to find better spots for recovery than only
Tilt-Stops!

Withdraw everything but 300 $ from Winner-Poker

One of the main things bothering me is my Huge bankroll (no I don't
hate money). Even before the Tournament-Victory of my buddy I had a
number close to 4 digits of dollares spread across my Accounts.
But what is it worth when you struggle to beat NL4/NL10 yet?
I will not go up in Limits and risk it just because my bankroll tells
me to do so.
I will move up when my Winrate dicdates it. Therefor I will withdraw
everything but 300 $ from Winner-Poker and go my way from there.
Every money I will win that is not because of my Winrate (Rakeback,
Promos, Tournaments) from now on will be saved ether for going broke
or for a nice Holiday/WSOP-Appearance/Trip to King's Casino Razvadov.
To be clear, I will have some money on other Pokersites for some
enjoyable Tournaments (this is just fun to me, I love tournaments
but due to my work I can't grind them regularly)
The feeling to withdraw ~1700 $ was amazing <3

Bankroll Management: Go up to NL10 (again)

This time it doesn't feel like I failed my shot at NL10. I found good
reasons to go down to NL4 for the time being. So my main goal for March
will be to arise again, stronger than ever, and work my way up to NL10
(for the 5th time) yet again.
Since I withdrew all my Cash but 300 $ I will just use conservative
Bankroll-Management from now on. I only see positive things to that
approach. I can't find excuses to not go up in Limits when I have the
Bankroll for it and I have strict rules for when I have to go down.
I think that will help me mentally!
40 Buy-Ins of the new Limit to go up, less than 30 Buy-Ins to go down
again. Simple!

This is for my Buddy, he loves Arny and deserves this after his Tour-Ship!

Proper Use of Tilt-Stop

In February I sometimes just ignored Tilt-Stop.
In March I will not ignore the rules I set up! I will stick with every
single Tilt-Stop.
Chasing losses never went well for me! (nor for anyone else I guess)

Other Goals for March

Go to gym 3 times a week

finish 2 Pokerbooks (The Mental Game of Poker and FTP-Tips from the Pros)

write 2 Blog entries with strategical aspects

Play 60,000 Hands 6-tabling Reg Tables

Read alot about the Mental game

Post 3 Hands about difficult spots I had to face each week

Find a bigger apartment for my girlfriend, me and our 3 ferrets ❤

Party Ferrets!

Final Statement

Let's make March great again!
Thank you so much for reading. I apprechiate every single Person who
found his way here.
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